Author: Richard Robbins

Workplace Safety – All Hands on Deck When considering workplace safety in construction, manufacturing, logistics, and other industries where manual labor is performed, among the most common matters that need to be addressed by employers and workers is protecting workers’ hands from injury. Statistics about non-fatal injuries documented for labor employees show that more than 20% of injuries that cause lost time involve hand injuries, which makes sense considering that humans naturally tend to use their hands to accomplish the significant majority of work that is done. That’s just how we’re configured. So how do we make sure our...

By Richard Robbins In the construction industry, there is a battle that takes place each workday between OSHA, the agency that governs workplace safety in the United States, and the companies over which it has jurisdiction. On one side are companies that must find ways to thrive in industries that are often competitive. These companies want to stay in business at the very least, but their ultimate goal is to obviously make a decent profit. While they may be legitimately concerned about employee safety and overall welfare, leaders of many of these companies see OSHA as a major threat to their bottom line and to their...

Several months ago I had my first opportunity to fly in a private airplane. A friend of my in-laws invited me and my wife to go to lunch near Austin, Texas. Just prior to takeoff, I observed him flipping through a booklet and working his way down a checklist. Instinctively, I was curious about what exactly was going through his mind as he perused his plane’s reference manual. After all, my wife and I were putting our lives and safety in his care. The conversation went like this. “Should I be worried that you’re reading through an instruction manual as we get ready for...